The Census count determines our share of Federal and State funding for healthcare, education, roads and transportation & parks. Westchester County estimates that each undercounted resident is a loss of $2,500 in funding each year. The Census is used to determine each State’s representation in Congress for the next ten years. It also determines our share of State and Local Sales Tax. You can respond online or by phone (in 14 different languages). Click on Read more… for a fun, census-related literary fact.
Fun, Census-related Literary Fact!
While our census is used to determine how taxes are spent, in Imperial Russia, the census was used to determine how much tax was collected. The census counted how many serfs each landowner owned and the landowner paid a certain amount of taxes per head or soul. If a serf died, it wouldn’t be taken off the books, though. The owner was still on the hook for the taxes until the next decennial census. This peculiarity forms the basis for Nikolai Gogol’s satirical novel, Dead Souls. There, a man comes to town and begins buying dead serfs from happily puzzled, and suddenly richer, landowners. Shenanigans ensue.